Students create tasty DNA models – Sunbury Daily Item

DANVILLE Bloomsburg University biology professors found their students Monday afternoon to be smaller than the college students they usually teach.

Dr. Jennifer Venditti and Dr. Angela Hess taught 21 first-graders and 25 second-graders in the Danville Primary School about blood components and DNA.

The professors will return today with some of their college students to continue teaching about science in teacher Laura Longs enrichment class which is known as response to instructional intervention.

We started teaching with Mrs. Longs class last year in second grade and this year are working with first- and second-graders, Venditti said.

Last week, they taught third-graders at Liberty-Valley Intermediate School in the Danville district.

In discussing DNA, Venditti told second-graders they would get to build a 3-D model of DNA with a collective yeah heard among the students.

You cannot eat any parts of your kit until you get home, she said of the model constructed of red licorice and pink, orange, green and yellow marshmallows held together with toothpicks.

The marshmallows represented the 12 base pairs totaling 24 and the licorice was modeled as the sugar phosphate backbone of DNA, which is also referred to as the molecule of heredity or genetic blueprint, Venditti said.

It gives all the instructions the cells need in order to function, she said.

First-graders, taught by Hess, made models of blood components in plastic bottles containing corn syrup, dried lentils, dried navy beans and white rice.

Hess and Venditti, who serve as advisers of the Biological and Allied Health Sciences Club at BU, do these types of outreach projects, Venditti said.

Mrs. Long does an exceptional job in creating enrichment opportunities for students. Our goal is individualized instruction and maximizing it to as many kids as possible, Danville Primary School Principal John Bickhart said.

Email comments to kblackledge@thedanvillenews.com. Follow Karen on Twitter @KLBlackledge.

Here is the original post:
Students create tasty DNA models - Sunbury Daily Item